Our Latest Posts About: Psychology

Why is deep breathing so important to meditation?

One of the most interesting features of the Apple Watch is the Breathing App, which prompts you several times a day to remind you to "Breathe". Can you imagine that? A technology company taking the time and effort to make "Breathing" a central option in a major product line. Why would they do that?

When Apple introduced the Apple Watch, they didn't focus much on it's ability to tell time, or even make phone calls. They focused on its health benefits, and as far as Apple (and many doctors) are concerned, taking a few minutes each day to breathe is an important part of being healthy.

Why teaching your children patience is more important than any other skill.

In the 1960s, a Psychologist named Walter Mischel created a test to see how children practice self control. The premise was pretty simple. He took a group of children and and placed them alone in a room with a single marshmallow and instructions that they could eat the marshmallow any time they wanted, but if they were waited 15 minutes, they could eat two. Then hit turned on the cameras and recorded their reactions.

The study was designed to see the kinds of techniques children would use to resist their desire to eat the marshmallow. Although they knew they would get a second marshmallow if they waited the entire 15 minutes, many of the children couldn't resist and ate the marshmallow before the t... [More]

They say smiles are contagious, so are frowns.

Being yourself is overrated. The trouble is, a lot of people are are miserable pricks, so I posted a video a while back where I said anyone who's a miserable prick should consider being somebody else. There's a little more behind that message, so I thought I'd try to expand on it a bit.

The main point is that nobody likes a miserable prick, so I'd rather see a miserable prick being phony by acting nice, than to see a miserable prick who's acting like a miserable prick. Doesn't that make sense?

The second point is that smiles are just as contagious as frowns. So if more people put on a smile (even if it's a fake one), it improves the mood of everyone around them. So as more people smile, rather than frown, they're actually h... [More]

Can you run out of willpower? Scientists say yes.

A few years ago, a team of scientist led by Roy Baumeister did a study to determine if willpower was something that was finite, or inexhaustible.

They took two groups of people for the study. Both groups were given a plate of radishes and a plate of cookies. The first group was told they could eat all the radishes they wanted, but they were not allowed to eat the cookies. The second group was told they could eat whatever they wanted without limits.

After a while, the groups were given a series of unsolvable math problems and told they could give up whenever they wanted. The group that had no restrictions spent an average of 20 minutes before giving up, but the group that had to use their willpower to keep from eating the... [More]

Believe it or not, scientists have found a way to make people more honest.

A few years ago, scientists did a study to see the kinds of circumstances that cultivate honest behavior, and surprisingly they actually found a universal trigger for honesty, and it's as simple as making people see themselves in the mirror.

What the scientists did was put a bowl of candy on a table with a sign that said "Take one", then recorded the number of people who were honest and took only one piece of candy verses the number who took more than one.

They repeated the test with a second group of people. This time they made one small change; they placed a mirror next to the bowl so each person had to look themselves in the eye as they took the candy. To their surprise, the percentage of people... [More]

I LOVE people with OCD, so next week, I'm going to start becoming Obsessive Compulsive.

Think about how cool it would be if I were obsessive compulsive. Each day would be full of all sorts of cool rituals like when to eat, drink, sleep, shower, and even when to use the toilet. That would be awesome!

I've been thinking about this plan for a long time, so I want to make sure I do it right, so I'm going to start off by doing some simple rituals like deciding where I'll put my iPhone each night, being sure I keep the same 45 degree angle from the lamp. I may need a protractor for the first few days until I get the position just right.

From there, I'll move on to a few more advanced rituals, like picking a day each week to sharpen my pencils. This is a pretty important ritua... [More]

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In some cases, patents may already exist for these ideas, in other cases, there may not be any existing patents and you are free to develop and explore the viability of developing and patenting the ideas.

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